By Joy Odor
Senator Nadal Imasuen, the Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions has on Tuesday invited Nigerians who feel oppressed, unjustly treated in any form to bring their Petitions to seek redress.
The petitions are unlawful suspensions, terminations, and denied promotions, which the Committee would investigate and compelled respondents to address.
Others are issues against various entities, including the police with civilians, customs, and Civil Service Commission.
Imasuen, who is representing Edo South Senatorial District at the National Assembly assured Nigerians that the Senate justice is free, no money is attached.
He called on Nigerians to utilise the very opportunity with his Committee, leadership of NASS and President Bola Tinubu to get justice while it lasted.
Senator Imasuen made the call in Abuja, while addressing newsmen on the activities of the Committee.
Imasuen explained that, they are three ways petitioners can submit their petitions, either through the Senate President, through their Senators or through the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, promising that once the petition is submitted the petitioner should be rest assured justice is certain.
He reiterated the committee’s commitment to bringing justice to the common man, while urging the general public to use the committee for justice and education, highlighting its free and non-legalistic nature pointing out that the committee serves as an alternative dispute resolution step, with the power to ensure compliance with its decisions.
“It appears that this Committee is not properly known. It’s not well known to the community, to our nation, people are not aware of the services we render to the ordinary man or woman, because it’s a committee that you don’t pay anything to come to, you don’t need a lawyer to represent you.
“If you have a lawyer, that’s fine, but you really don’t need a lawyer to represent you. So you don’t spend money before you get justice for your petition, and so it’s let me use this opportunity to let the world know, Nigerians at large, that we are here to serve them and we are serving them.”he said.
The Committee Chairman recalls a case where a final-year student was rusticated from the University of Abuja due to alleged activities in student unionism. “The committee intervened, and the student was reinstated.
“The final year student was rusticated from the University because of his activities, alleged activities in student unionism, and haven’t written all his exams and his project, the students came, petitioned the school, and we invited the school.
“They came, and we deliberated. That took about two or three deliberations, and we were able to come to the resolution that we asked the University to take him back, and they complied”
Neda also cited a case involving two children shot by NDLEA, one killed and one blinded. The committee demanded a medical report, which confirmed the cause of death and NDLEA’s responsibility. NDLEA admitted culpability, and the committee is now negotiating compensation.
“We demanded for the medical report as to the cause of death. It was revealed that the cause of death was a bullet, and NDLEA admitted to having been responsible for that bullet, even though negligently.
“So a big part of it has been solved. They admitted that they did it. There’s a medical report, which confirmed the death of that child and the other one that is blinded before us to see.
“NDLEA also has not denied that they are culpable of it. So what’s left for us is compensation, because there’s nothing else you can do. NDLEA offered 20 million. And we thought that was a bit small, We’re currently interrogating it with the House of Representatives to ensure that the family gets something reasonable from NDLEA.
“There are others who come before us to complain that they have been unlawfully suspended or terminated from the appointments, or they’ve been denied promotions for whatever reasons that they bring.
“At the end of the day, we interrogated all of these things, and then we took position, then compelled the other party, the respondent, to address the issue.
“So we have many of these problems, either against the police, the customs, the Civil Service Commission, we have that before us now, and so on and so forth. So these are the kind of petitions that we see every other day and I’m glad that we are discussing it now” he narrated.
